Trouble Every Day (2001)
Directed by Claire Denis

Film Review

With its unseemly mix of eroticism and gory horror, this shock thriller from acclaimed director Claire Denis was bound to be controversial, but few could have foreseen the scale of the backlash.  Since its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001, the film has provoked audiences and critics across the world, with most reviewers viciously condemning the film for its explicit portrayal of sexually motivated cannibalism.  With many critics citing the film as depraved and immoral, Denis' reputation as a serious director has unquestionably been tarnished, probably without justification.  Like many groundbreaking works before it, Trouble Every Day has been the victim of an excessive media frenzy, and it will probably achieve a more favourable rating some years after it was first subject to public scrutiny.

Viewed in the right frame of mind, Trouble Every Day is an effective and thought-provoking piece of cinema, sustained by some exceptional production values.  The beautifully wistful cinematography and mesmerising performances (particularly from Béatrice Dalle and Tricia Vessey) give the film some powerful moments of humanity, as compassion and perversion are skilfully played alongside one another.  In contrast to the vast majority of American shock thrillers, Claire Denis' film does have genuine artistic merit and is not remotely exploitative.  When she films the human body, it is not with a perverse salacious relish, but rather to portray a thing of beauty, the stimulus of our own, most basic, desires.  By sumptuously filming naked flesh as if it were an anonymous carcass of meat, she is suggesting that carnal desire has a double meaning: the need to make love and eat meat are two facets of the same primeval instinct.  It is quite plausible that in certain individuals the two compulsions become inextricably entangled, so that the urge to eat your sexual partner is not so far-fetched as you might think.  After all, is this not just a variation on the traditional vampire legend?  The reason why the film shocks probably has less to do with its content but more to do with the "every day"  way in which Claire Denis tells the story.  A blood-and-lust orgy may be perfectly acceptable in a remote candle-lit Hungarian castle in the 1800s, but not in a staff locker room in a Parisian hotel in the year 2000.

Although Trouble Every Day has many strengths it has nearly as many faults, and it these, not the presence of its two infamous cannibalistic scenes, which most damage the film's credibility.  Vincent Gallo is obviously miscast as the male lead, his performance lacking the subtle ambiguity needed to make his Jekyll-and-Hyde character sympathetic and allow the film to function.  Also, it is fair to say that Claire Denis does overstep the mark in a few places, and the film could have benefited from some judicial editing.   A needlessly explicit wank scene and the theatrical excesses in the cannibalism sequences both greatly undermine the film's seriousness and merely give the critics more valuable ammunition for slating the film.

The biggest problem with the film, however, is not its graphic content (which in fact only takes up a minute fraction of its runtime) but its awkward narrative composition.  In Denis' previous films, narrative is almost irrelevant.  What Denis does best is to paint a picture of an enclosed world, using the setting and human expression to convey the mood and tell the story.  In a genre film, the same approach doesn't really work: without a coherent narrative, a thriller/horror film can only lack credibility and will surely lose its audience's attention within the first 30 minutes.  In Trouble Every Day, Denis' cinematic style works well in creating a mood of suppressed fear and dark uncontrollable desire, but it also greatly emphasises the sizeable flaws in the plot.  Denis' mistake - if she has made a mistake at all - was in moving into new territory without refining her cinematic technique.

To sum up, Trouble Every Day is a mysterious piece of cinema which is as compelling as it is repulsive, a sophisticated variation on the conventional horror film with images that will leave an indelible impression on any spectator.  Whilst it is not Claire Denis' most accomplished or satisfying work, it should reaffirm, not negate, her credentials as a high-calibre director with a unique artistic vision.  With the complicity of her remarkable cinematographer, Agnès Godard, Denis offers a powerful and credible study in the darker side of human desire, a totally chilling evocation of pschosexual fantasy and vampire folklore.  In short, something you can really get your teeth into....

Film Synopsis

A pharmaceuticals researcher Shane Brown takes his new wife June to Paris for their honeymoon.  Unbeknown to his wife, Shane is suffering from a mental disorder which compels him to bite into his partner whilst making love.  His real motive for visiting Paris is to track down a maverick brain scientist, Léo Semeneau, who, he believes, can cure him of his affliction.   Meanwhile, Léo's own wife, Coré, is in the advanced stages of the same disorder and has to be locked up to prevent her from seducing and feasting on any further victims...